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Friday, April 15, 1994     Page: 4A

Meetings
   
WRIGHT TWPBoard won’t reconsider shifting of 58 students
    The Crestwood School Board refused to reconsider its unanimous decision to
shift 58 students from Fairview Elementary to Rice Elementary despite recent
parent protests.
   
Board member Emilia Kramer made a motion at Thursday night’s meeting asking
the board to reconsider the decision after holding a public meeting. The
motion was defeated 6-3. Kramer was supported by Louise Fino and Raymond
Whalen, but Michael Sinco, Stephanie Grubert, John Williams, Eric Aigeldinger,
Joseph Krivak and John Pisaneschi voted no.
   
Pisaneschi said he had worked with the committees that researched the pros
and cons of the decision.
   
“The consensus was it was better for the children to move than to continue
with the overcrowding,” he said.
   
The board and the public also heard the tentative budget for the first
time. Superintendent Gordon Snow presented a tentative budget that calls for
expenditures of $15,100,951. Next year’s revenues will be $14,597,915 and the
difference will be made up by $500,000 left over in the 1993-1994 budget, Snow
said. The millage rate will remain 122. A mill is a tax of $1 per $1,000 of
assessed property value, which means a homeowner whose property is assessed at
$5,000 would continue to pay $610.
   
Crestwood will receive an additional $11,000 from the state next year.
However, because the district’s enrollment has grown by 68 students, the extra
money doesn’t cover the cost of the higher enrollment. Snow said there is a
decrease of $35 per student for next year.
   
“We have prepared this budget under a number of constraints,” Snow said.
   
Additional constraints are the unsettled contracts of the administrative,
teaching and secretarial staffs for the 1994-1995 year.
   
“The big whammy in the whole assumption list is that we’re building this
budget with three categories of unknowns,” Snow said.
   
Salaries are tentatively budgeted at $8,196,365, and Snow said he thinks
the budget’s predictions will be close.
   
Krivak said the board will find out what the groups are asking for after
the fact-finding hearing April 29.
   
The board has one month to examine the proposed budget and will vote on
accepting it at the May 12 meeting.
   
In other business, the board supported Kramer’s motion to have a community
meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday to discuss the district’s transportation system.